266 POINTER READINGS 



laws of Nature, there is one which does something more 

 than fulfil those laws of Nature. This property, which 

 is evidently not definable with respect to any of the laws 

 of Nature, we describe as "actuality" — generally using 

 the word as a kind of halo of indefinite import. We 

 have seen that the trend of modern physics is to reject 

 these indefinite attributions and to define its terms 

 according to the way in which we recognise the pro- 

 perties w T hen confronted by them. We recognise the 

 actuality of a particular world because it is that world 

 alone with which consciousness interacts. However 

 much the theoretical physicist may dislike a reference to 

 consciousness, the experimental physicist uses freely 

 this touchstone of actuality. He would perhaps prefer 

 to believe that his instruments and observations are certi- 

 fied as actual by his material sense organs; but the final 

 guarantor is the mind that comes to know the indications 

 of the material organs. Each of us is armed with this 

 touchstone of actuality; by applying it we decide that 

 this sorry world of ours is actual and Utopia is a dream. 

 As our individual consciousnesses are different, so our 

 touchstones are different; but fortunately they all agree 

 in their indication of actuality — or at any rate those 

 which agree are in sufficient majority to shut the others 

 up in lunatic asylums. 



It is natural that theoretical physics in its formulation 

 of a general scheme of law should leave out of account 

 actuality and the guarantor of actuality. For it is just 

 this omission which makes the difference between a law 

 of Nature and a particular sequence of events. That 

 which is possible (or not "too improbable") is the 

 domain of natural science; that which is actual is the 

 domain of natural history. We need scarcely add that 

 the contemplation in natural science of a wider domain 



